Managing the environment for development and to sustain pro-poor growth

The main finding of the paper is that resource-intensive development in Asia has been achieved at significant environmental cost. Environmental issues such as deforestation, pressure on water supplies, and pollution from industry and energy use pose real limits to further economic growth. In many Asian countries, the cost is equivalent to one third or more of Gross National Savings. They also exacerbate Asia’s high vulnerability to natural disasters. (Asia already suffers 90 per cent of all climate-related disasters, and this is likely to increase with climate change.)

The challenge for governments and policymakers is to use natural wealth to generate growth and to enable the poor to benefit from this growth, while at the same time sustaining its capacity to produce these benefits into the future. Such ‘green growth’ has been called for by the Asian Ministerial Conference 2005 can be achieved through improvements in three key areas: institutions, investment and international partnerships.

Significant Asian scientific and institutional innovations have already shown what progress can be made. The paper highlights the potential for further progress through international partnerships that build on existing initiatives in:

• environmental health
• energy and climate change
• sustainable forestry and eradicating illegal logging
• sustainable fishing
• transboundary rivers management
• disaster preparedness
• greening Asia’s financial markets and private sector
• pro-poor conservation.

[author]

[This paper was prepared for the Asia 2015 Conference, held in London, 6 and 7 March 2006]